


Penelope

by kyrilu



Category: Dominion (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 15:25:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2155590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/kyrilu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is not the legacy of House Riesen and House Whele as she is their undoing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penelope

She can only hide it for so long. She has been wearing black dresses with folds and layers, a flower wreath on her head like the princess the city knows her to be. Black is the color they expect to see.

Claire had led William's funeral before Vega. She had lit a candle and cupped her hands, and looked at the solemn faces of the people. They had loved him. Of course they did--it was Claire Riesen and William Whele who had taught about the Chosen One, giving to and speaking to everyone regardless of their V-status.

Claire thinks of the concentration she had always seen on William's face when he had prayed, and wonders when he had gone astray. When he had turned to Gabriel. Claire had glanced at David Whele, then, praying beside her in front of the people, and thinks that William must have gotten his ability to _pretend_ from him. Did he throw his own son to his lion? When he sees her looking, Claire smiles at him. She calls him _Father_ , and thinks of her real father with muted pain. She needs him now, but she had needed to know about her mother, too.

She walks out into the streets of Vega. She's wearing a white dress that shows the curve of her belly. In her sweater pocket, close to her heart, the letter Alex had written brushes against her. She has a dried flower tucked behind her ear - desert sage, the remains of what William had given her.

She offers prayers to the people she passes. Privately, she doesn't pray to the Chosen One any more, because he's just Alex, when it comes down to it, and she doesn't pray to angels, because they have forsaken humans as much as God has, in the end. 

(Maybe David Whele hadn't been wrong after all when he had scoffed at the idea of a Chosen One, insisting that the solution lay at the hands of humanity instead of something divine. Alex can go to Gabriel; Alex has his path. But Claire is the Lady of Vega.)

She thinks that the child is a girl. She will name her after her mother, or maybe after Bixby, and she will sing her to sleep with the words _Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me._

She preaches hope, and freedom, and new life.

Claire Riesen has lost her family, but she has not lost her city.


End file.
